Sean Penn Interview Inspires ‘El Chapo Shirts’

Instagram12 Jan 2016Los Angeles, CA

A Los Angeles clothing store is cashing in on the publicity surrounding the arrest of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, who was photographed wearing two of the store’s flamboyant silk shirts during his interview with actor Sean Penn.

According to TMZ,retailer Barabas is now using photo’s from El Chapo’s meeting with Penn for Rolling Stone to sell its clothing. In images Chapo took with the actor, he was wearing separate bright blue button down shirts by the men’s brand.

After the images went viral, the store decided to take advantage of the free exposure by posting the photos, alongside images of their clothing on its website and social media accounts.

A photo posted by Barabas_Men (@barabas_men) on Jan 9, 2016 at 9:08pm PST

Interest in the shirts was so high on Monday that the company’s website crashed.

Barabas Men posted about the crash on its Facebook page: “Due to unexpected very high traffic to our website our server is down. Our website is expected to get back to its normal functionality within next couple of hours. We apologize for any inconvenience. During the downtime, please use Amazon to purchase our famous El Chapo Shirts.”

Both shirts are listed at $128.

The company is also pushing a promotion on its social media pages that reads, “Like us on Facebook and Instagram for a chance to win our Barabas ‘El Chapo’ shirts.”

In October, Penn secretly traveled to Mexico, where he interviewed the Sinoloa drug cartel leader for Rolling Stone. That interview was published on Saturday, a day after the El Chapo was arrested following a firefight with authorities in the northwest Mexican town of Los Mochis.